Business intelligence (“BI”) systems have been developed that combine data gathering, data storage, and knowledge management with analytical tools to present complex and competitive information to planners and decision makers. Many conventional business intelligence systems include modules and programs that provide visual reporting of information regarding the status and operation of business processes in a full-page display panel known as a “dashboard”. These systems frequently utilize messaging, data integration, active data caching, analytics monitoring, alerting, and reporting technologies to deliver configurable information to an end user within seconds of an enterprise event or change in status. Streaming data delivery ensures that real-time reports or data displays are automatically and continually updated as changes occur in the underlying data. Therefore, managers and business executives can monitor end-to-end business processes in real-time and make decisions and take immediate actions that impact overall business performance.
Most known BI systems utilize “push” technology to deliver data to the client. With push technology, a client receives data updates in an asynchronous manner from a server at the server's discretion, generally after expressing interest in a certain type of information. In general, the client becomes a passive part of the system, receiving updated information as soon as it is available on the server, without having to ask for it every so often. The data delivered to the client using push technology is sometimes referred to as “active” data.